


What the Rain Brings

by Lily Catts (Borjarnon)



Category: Hololive, holoMyth, hololive English, vtuber
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Future Ame as Cable is my HC, Gen, Sad Ame in the rain, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:02:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28032078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Borjarnon/pseuds/Lily%20Catts
Summary: Amelia Watson can't stand it, despite everything going well today.
Relationships: Gawr Gura/Watson Amelia (hololive), Ninomae Ina'nis/Watson Amelia (hololive)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 141





	What the Rain Brings

_Amelia Watson backed against the wall as she faced the intruder in her room._

_An adult woman stood before her, guardedly scanning the four corners of her bedroom. She was clad in battle-worn armor, and in her hand was a wicked-looking spear, which glowed electric blue. A rifle peeked out from her back, its make and design unfamiliar._

_Oh, and she was ripped as hell._

_"Oh, it worked," the woman said. Her left eye was covered in an eyepatch. "Hi, me."_

_"Uhh..." Amelia said, her eyes wandering to the woman's spear, to her rifle, and then her sick biceps._ _She herself was in her pajamas, without anything to defend herself with._ _"You're... me?"_

_"Perfectly innocent, too," Future Amelia muttered to herself. "I jumped too early."_

_"Are you going to ask me to come with you, if I want to live?" Young Amelia said._

_Future Amelia shook her head. "No, this isn't like something from a movie, I'm afraid. I don't have much time. Take this." Future Amelia's arm flicked, and Young Amelia threw up her hands in reflex._

_She caught a small metal object, a battered pocketwatch._

_"What's this? A vintage heirloom?"_

_"It's a time machine, idiot." Future Amelia sighed in frustration. "God, I was such a— never mind. Listen, the Chrono Cabal will rule over the timelines, unless you stop them before it's too late."_

_"So it's like one of those movies."_

_"This is real, Ame."_ _Young Amelia could feel her future self cringing inside._

_"Ame? Since when did you call us that?"_

_"Just force of habit. Nothing you need to know right now."_

_"Stop it with the cryptic time traveler stuff! I'm just a girl!" Young Amelia said. "Are you really entrusting the future to someone who plays video games all day?_ _The most productive thing I did today was stream CS:GO for five hours._ _What do I know about saving the world? You're the one with the weapons, why don't you do it yourself?"_

_"You think I haven't spent my whole life fighting them?" Future Amelia snapped. "I messed up; made a bunch of stupid mistakes. I tried to do it all alone, and they... they..." She stopped herself, clenching her fists in frustration._

_Young Amelia stared at her adult self, who was trying her best not to break down in front of her. "Hey, I'm sorry," she said. "You must've gone through a lot."_

_Future Amelia's face softened. "I never wanted to bother you, but I'm out of options."_

_Young Amelia raised the pocketwatch. "So what am I gonna do with this?"_

_"There's a note inside, which should tell you everything," Future Amelia said. She looked outside the window. The full moon was up, and she smiled wistfully. "You'll figure it out. I know I did. Gawr Gura. Ninomae Ina'nis. Mori Calliope. Takanashi Kiara. Find them; they'll save your life, and you'll save theirs, many times over."_

_"Uh, okay," Young Amelia said. "I'm probably not gonna remember any of those names in the morning."_

_"I know I did, too." Future Amelia said. The air around her crackled, and a pillar of blue light covered her. "Good luck, me. Remember that you're not alone."_

_"Hey!"_

_"What?"_

_"How'd you get so hot?"_

_Future Amelia smiled. "We always were."_

_And she was gone. Exhausted, Young Amelia Watson sank to the floor, cradling the pocketwatch in her hands._

_"I'll do my best," she said to her two selves._

* * *

Amelia Watson woke up. It was that dream again, about the time when her fate had forever been changed. She tried to push it away from her mind, to hasten the process of forgetting, and focused on the present. Gura's head rested on her shoulder, her cute face serene in her slumber. Amelia noted her friend's hand intertwined with her own, and the young detective summoned all her nerve to remain calm.

She did not let people get too close to her, but her fellow Hololive EN girls made the whole aloof detective image difficult. Amelia could not have wished for a more supportive group of friends. _And Gura is, well, you know, Gura's my best-- my most frequent collaborator_ , Amelia reminded herself. The shark just liked to hold her hand, bypassing all of Amelia's mental (and emotional) defenses for some reason.

The pizza boxes were stacked neatly on the nearby table, the remnants of their hard-earned lunch. The three of them--Amelia, Gura, and Ina--had finished an off-collab Smash stream, and they had each played the game enough to have garnered a measure of watchable competence. The backseaters dwindled in number and their chat became the virtual equivalent of a rowdy but endearing crowd, cheering them on.

Amelia's heart swelled in accomplishment over that stream. They achieved record numbers, without experiencing the usual technical difficulties that had plagued their generation. Wait, wasn't she the cause of those? Amelia had the legendary Watson luck, which swung hard both ways. Never mind that, life was good. In the nearby reclining chair, Ina was comfortably asleep under a quilted blanket, her pen and tablet tucked neatly by the corner of the table.

It was a cloudy day, perfect for walking. So why did Amelia Watson have the overwhelming urge to run away, to _disappear_? She took out her vintage pocketwatch, and turned it over, noting every scratch and mark on it. Its previous owner must have used it over and over, yet Amelia had never tried it once. She was scared to mess up, and send herself thousands of years across time by accident. For all she had done to psych herself up, she still wasn't ready for the responsibility. Did Future Amelia earn all those extra scars from her journeys through time and space?

Her future self told her to save the world. She was just an ordinary girl with an extraordinary mind. What could she do?

The young detective thought about the Chrono Cabal, the mysterious organization that her future self had been fighting all her life. Where could she find such resolve to stand up to something so powerful? The thought of putting her family and friends in danger by merely associating with her was enough for Amelia to shirk in her investigation.

The Chrono Cabal had not yet made a move on young Amelia Watson, but the possibility hung over her head like a veritable Sword of Damocles. An attack could happen right now, and she had no idea how to fight them.

She had to leave.

Amelia studied her friends, who were oblivious to what she was going through. She closed her eyes and burned the image in her mind, savoring the memory. _Time to go._

Delicately she let go of Gura's hand, taking great care not to startle the shark. Ina seemed to be firmly in dreamland. The birds chirped outside; it really was a nice afternoon. _Shame._

Amelia stood up, retrieved her coat and hat, and walked out of Gura's apartment.

* * *

There were few people on the street. _Good_ , thought Amelia, she wouldn't need to worry about bumping into anyone, which was an alarmingly frequent occurrence for her. Some detective she was, but there was really little she could do about her relative clumsiness.

 _Not good,_ she also thought, as she would be vulnerable out in the open. Her Watson-style baritsu would be enough for one attacker, but she doubted her own ability to defend herself from more. And any evil organization would know better than to half-ass such a potential threat to them. Nevertheless, she continued walking aimlessly.

The rain began to fall. The forecast had not said anything about rainfall, but it was a cloudy day, after all. Amelia remembered, a little too late, that she had brought an umbrella to Gura's place, but forgot to take it with her, in her rush to make herself scarce.

"Some detective I am, heh," she said, laughing at her own sad joke. A few cars passed by, a reminder of the wider world ignorant of her private struggles. She did not stop as the rain began to soak her clothes. Where to? _Somewhere away._

Her hand tightened around her pocketwatch. It had only one charge in it. In her instructions, Future Amelia told her to never jump without an extra charge, which should be saved so that she could return to her original timeline. She had not bothered to recharge the device, yet, despite Future Amelia's helpful holographic references.

When her present felt like heaven, why should she care about the future? But the present _was_ in danger, her rational mind reasoned. She had to protect her friends. Amelia remembered her future self's regretful words. What would happen in the future?

Someone small bumped into Amelia from behind, and a pair of arms embraced her. The young detective tried to take a step forward, but her assailant dragged her back.

Amelia smelled the sea in the midst of the rain.

"Ina, I found Watson!" Gura yelled, her sharp voice tinged with relief and desperation.

"Why are you here?" Amelia choked out the words. Her tone was upset, chiding even, but even she couldn't deny the relief in her voice. _They really looked for me. Me, who walked out on them._

Gura spun her around, her strength surprising Amelia. "Why'd you bail on us?" Her face was more hurt than furious. Her trusting, earnest face put Amelia Watson to shame. She'd done it again, ran away from people when they got too close.

Detectives were supposed to keep everyone at arm's length. How could she conduct her investigations impartially, if she got attached to her associates?

"I don't know. I really don't." Lie. Amelia tried to look away, but Gura's hurt face was impossible to ignore. She deserved better than a half-hearted excuse.

"I'm just really scared." There, she finally admitted it. Like a stone tied around her neck, she was dragged underwater to be drowned, but the shark saved her once again with her tiny hands that were filled with all the warmth in the world.

"I don't know who or what you're scared of, but I'll... I'll fight them for you," Gura said.

"Gura... I just didn't want to get you all involved. It's a time traveler thing. You could all be in danger before you even know it." Amelia didn't doubt Gura's strength, but she was dealing with an organization that could erase entire timelines from existence.

"I can take care of myself, Watson," Gura said. "You're the one who doesn't have shark powers."

"Shark powers? Heh! You can't even swim!" Amelia laughed. She thanked the rain for masking her tears.

"I'm hydrodynamic," Gura countered, "unlike a certain someone with a lot of _drag_ up front."

"Oh? What do we have here?" Ina's calm voice pierced the air like a spear hurled across the void. "Two children who forgot their umbrellas?"

As Amelia looked up, a tentacle flicked her forehead. "Ow!"

"You've been a bad girl, Watson." Ina floated before them, held up by her tentacles. Several were holding up umbrellas, and she gave her spares to her two wet friends. "And you Gura, you dashed out the door the moment you found out Amelia was gone."

"I'm sorry, Gura," Amelia said, kissing the top of Gura's head. It just felt the right thing to do at the time.

"Apology accepted, as long as you don't leave us anymore."

"What about my apology?" Ina said, smiling wryly.

"I'm sorry, Ina." Amelia knew less to say to the eldritch priestess. Ina just seemed to have a knack for figuring out things. She would have made an incredible detective. _Perhaps even-- no, don't say it_ , Amelia mentally kicked herself.

"It was a joke, heh. But I forgive you." Ina drew very close to Amelia's face. "You're lucky Gura found you first. I would've _restrained_ you." Her tentacles wagged, driving the threat home.

"Hic," was all the young detective could say in reply.

"Ina..." Gura implored, tugging gently at her friend's arm. "let's just go home."

"Before the two of you catch a cold, humu humu. Ame?"

"Are you crying, Watson?" Gura asked, looking up. Always with the hard questions.

"I'm not... It takes more than this to make me... ah darn it." Finally, Amelia leveled her eyes with her friends. The rain had washed away her tears. "Thank you, everyone..."

She was Amelia Watson, time-traveling detective, and she would no longer fight her battles alone.

**Author's Note:**

> "Ame" means rain in Japanese and I thought of writing a "sad Ame in the rain" story. This story was written with the help of Minami (美波) who has TWO songs about feels in the rain. I had a lot of fun writing this, and coming up with my version of Amelia's backstory! I hope to explore InaAmeSame more in the future.


End file.
